BODY ARMOR

Hey, we've only been in Iraq for 48 months -- surely you didn't think that was enough time for Rummy's military to figure out how to protect our troops properly, did you?

The Rev. Gary Blaine says he respected his son's decision to join the Army National Guard, but he never expected to pay for his son's military equipment.

Mr. Blaine is pastor of Toledo's First Unitarian Universalist Church, which is trying to raise money to provide his son with better body armor than that provided by the military before he is deployed to Afghanistan in June....

Mr. Blaine said though transportation units like the one to which his son will be attached are frequently attacked, the Army won't provide Christopher with the body armor he needs to protect him from a bullet. "The Army will only give my son Level 3 body armor, which will only stop shrapnel but not a bullet," the pastor said.

He said his son's military supervisor advised members of the unit to go out and buy their own Level 4 body armor, which is what other military families and personnel have recommended....

"It makes me feel very angry that we cannot afford to buy the necessary equipment for our troops," said Maureen Casile, a member of the church's board of trustees....

--Toledo Blade

(Link via Democrtatic Underground.)